Saturday, February 25, 2012

Majority overrule

A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a convention assembled to revise Ohio’s constitution. Spurred by recent court decisions striking down various labor laws, Roosevelt called for reforms that would ensure that the American people had the final say over important constitutional questions. ...

At the center of Roosevelt’s reform agenda was a simple, albeit controversial, proposal: the recall of judicial decisions. Roosevelt summarized this by saying that, when judges decide a constitutional question, “the people should have the right to recall that decision if they think it wrong.” ...